A24's Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Takes $1.75 Million in Thursday Previews

By Marcus Bennett

A24's Elizabeth Holmes documentary "You Can See Everything" earned $1.75 million from Thursday preview showings on just 855 screens. The film, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, arrived in theaters after a marketing campaign shrouded in secrecy. Crowds eager to avoid spoilers turned out in force.

The strong preview number positions the documentary for a projected opening weekend of $7 million to $8 million. That figure would rank among the highest ever for a nonmusic documentary. For comparison, Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" concert film grossed $92.8 million in its debut, but that film belongs to a different commercial category. The more relevant benchmark is 2018's "RBG," which finished its run with $14.4 million and was considered a sizable box office success. "You Can See Everything" is on pace to earn half of "RBG's" total domestic gross in a single weekend.

Why is the market still hungry for Holmes?

The film benefits from an audience that has not tired of Elizabeth Holmes. The Theranos founder was celebrated in glossy magazine profiles as a next-generation Einstein until her blood testing technology was exposed as a fraud. The story has already produced bestselling books, podcasts, Alex Gibney's documentary "The Inventor," and an Emmy-winning limited series starring Amanda Seyfried as the Silicon Valley founder. Apparently the market for all things Holmes still has room.

The directors bring their own drawing power. Fielder built a cult following through the Comedy Central parody reality show "Nathan for You" and the HBO docu-comedy "The Rehearsal," in which he has raised social awkwardness into an art form. Oppenheim is coming off another A24 hit, "Primetime," which stars Robert Pattinson as "To Catch a Predator" host Chris Hansen. That film has earned more than $42 million domestically on a $15 million budget.

What does this change for documentaries?

For A24 and for nonfiction filmmaking, the answer is that star directors and a spoiler-averse release strategy can move a documentary toward commercial territory once reserved for studio genre films. A $7 million to $8 million opening would put "You Can See Everything" in rare company among documentaries without a music hook.

The film does face serious competition this weekend. Paramount's "Street Fighter" opens across the country. But based on its Thursday previews, the Fielder and Oppenheim documentary is, as trade coverage put it, out for blood. If projections hold, the weekend will confirm that the Holmes saga remains one of the most durable stories in American popular culture.